Richard Meier is an American architect known for his rationalist and minimalist buildings that prominently feature the color white. Some of his most notable works include the Jubilee Church in Rome, which uses a self-cleaning material and features soaring sails, and the Athenaeum in New Harmony, intended as a community center. Meier's works are influenced by architects like Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and Frank Lloyd Wright, incorporating simple forms, naturally lit interiors, and circulation elements like ramps. He is considered a leading proponent of "white architecture."
2. Richard Meier
An American Architect,
born in 1934.
Studied Architecture
from Cornell University
in 1957
Started his own practice
in New York in 1963.
3. Richard Meier
Identified as “ the New
York Five” in 1972.
A sculptor and a product
designer on a smaller
side.
8. Prominent works
Jubilee Church, Rome, Italy.
Athenaeum, New Harmony, USA.
The Getty Centre, Los Angeles,
High Museum of art, Atlanta,
Museum of Contemporary art, Barcelona.
Meier House, his own residence.
Meier is the architect behind number of
world’s finest museums and galleries.
13. Jubilee Church, Rome, Italy
This structure was built with a material that acts as a
self cleaner and needs minimum maintenance.
Bianco TX Millenium.
14. Bianco TX Millenium
A material which contains Titanium di Oxide, a white
pigment that has another peculiarity. – it ‘eats’ the
surrounding smog.
Extensive testing has since determined that
construction products containing Titanium di oxide
help to destroy pollutants found in car exhaust and
heating emissions.
15. Bianco TX Millenium
Titanium di Oxide is a self-cleaning coating due to
its photo-catalytic properties.
Photo-catalytic properties – sunlight sets off a
chemical reaction that accelerates natural oxidation.
16. Jubilee Church, Rome, Italy
The church is conceived as a composition of basic
elements, clearly referred to the purity of the cube and
sphere.
17. Jubilee Church, Rome, Italy
Interiors are rich with
natural lighting that
comes through the
gaps between the solid
elements and
brightens the whole
space.
The main source of
diffused light is the
glass roof between
the shells.
18. Jubilee Church, Rome, Italy
In the early mornings
and late afternoons,
the sunlight penetrates
the entrance façade
and the alter façade,
giving spectacular
atmospheric effects.
20. Athenaeum, New Harmony.
Located near the banks
of the Wabash is the
starting point for the
tour of the historic town.
Is intended to serve as
a centre for visitor
orientation and cultural
community events.
22. Athenaeum, New Harmony.
Visitors arriving by boat
land on a path that
leads through a field to
the building.
A three-story plane set
at a forty degree angle
to the podium
acknowledges the point
of arrival.
24. Athenaeum, New Harmony.
Once the visitor has
crossed the threshold,
the entry box propels
him to the foot of the
internal circulation
ramp.
From here, the building
is a continuous
experience, of which
the interior ramp is a
chief mediator and
armature.
25. Athenaeum, New Harmony.
White
Simple forms,
Naturally lit interiors,
5 principle of Le
Corbusier,
Mies’s open spaces and
merging the interior with
exterior using glass,
Wright’s circulation
patterns(ramp),
Describe this master piece.
47. “ My Goal is presence, not illusion.
My Meditations are on space, form, light and how to make
them.
My Style is something that is born out of culture and
profoundly connected with personal experience”.
- Richard Meier.